When Link woke up the next day, his head did not hurt as badly as it had the previous two years.
He looked beside him. Rachel was still fast asleep.
Link smiled. This year, it was his turn to take care of Rachel.
Link quietly got out of bed and slipped out of the bedroom.
As he entered the kitchen, looking at the bright sunshine outside and the rippling lake in the backyard stirred by the breeze, Link felt incomparably refreshed.
This was probably the best he had felt in months.
There was no pressure, no pain, no game—only gentle sunlight and this peaceful morning.
And, of course, a brand-new third championship trophy, along with the NBA Finals MVP trophy.
As Link toasted some bread, he recalled the wonderful events of last night.
After winning the Larry O'Brien Trophy last night, Link had once again received the NBA Finals MVP trophy from Bill Russell without any suspense.
In the original timeline, this year's NBA Finals MVP should have been Iguodala. And Iguodala was, coincidentally, on the Grizzlies and had performed quite well himself.
But Link's performance was simply beyond anything Iguodala could compare to.
He erased a nine-point deficit in the final eight minutes of Game 1, then came up with a steal and a game-winning pull-up jumper with 4.2 seconds left in Game 2.
On top of that, he averaged 37.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.7 blocks in the Finals!
Those outrageous numbers were astonishing. His 37.2 points per game, in particular, ranked second only to Jordan in Finals scoring average!
One had to know that, even counting Link, only five players in NBA history had ever averaged more than 35 points per game in the Finals.
One was Iverson, who averaged 35.8 points against